History Main / FoulCafeteriaFood

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': DoubleSubversion in "School Reunion". The chips[[note]] Fries in the U.S. [[/note]] in the canteen are noted to actually be pretty tasty. [[spoiler: But they are revealed to be covered in alien Krillitane oil, which makes the kids (and Rose) temporarily hyper-intelligent, as part of a plot to crack an equation that would allow the Krillitanes to change reality]].

* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhanton'': In "Mystery Meat", [[GranolaGirl Sam]] reveals that she convinced the school board to change the lunch menu to serve only "ultra-recyclo-vegetarian" food, which mainly consists of grass on a bun. Nobody, not even ''the ghostly lunch lady'', is happy with this change.

* ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'': In "Revenge of the Slitheen'', Maria and Clyde notice the food at their new school is moldy. The principal's response when Clyde complains? "Just pick the bad bits off." Subverted in that this is meant to be a sign that something is wrong, not accepted as the norm. [[spoiler: This is because the school part of the Slitheen's plot to drain Earth of its energy -- the hidden transducers cause cellular decay in organic matter.]]

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/NickelodeonClickamajigs https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bandicam_2020_11_26_17_01_11_836.jpg]]]]

So it's just another school day. The protagonist and his friends are talking in the hallways after class, when all of a sudden the bell rings. Uh oh -- it's lunch time.

* In ''[[Literature/HorribleHistories Disgusting Digestion]]'', [[PrivateDetective Private Eye]] [[PunnyName M.I. Gutzache]]'s second mission is to investigate the school kitchen, which regularly produces [[MysteryMeat mystery soup]], chips that are so oily they cause an oilslick in your stomach, peas that bend the tines of forks, and a [[WormInAnApple potato that had a slug in it]][[note]]At least it wasn't half a slug[[/note]].

* ''Series/{{MASH}}'': The mess-hall at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital was known for it's horrible cuisine, from the first season [[LongRunner to the last]].

** A running gag that started in season 4 was Hawkeye sniffing his food, then describing what it smelled like to BJ Hunnicutt. BJ would tell him- sometimes politely, sometimes not -to knock it off.

** In one episode, Hawkeye is helping with the kitchen, and decides that he's going to treat the camp to french toast for breakfast. He begins to recite the recipe to the cook, milk, eggs, etc. The cook pulls out a huge vat and dumps powdered milk in it, then powdered eggs, then begins to hydrate the mixture with water from a hose before dumping in whole loaves of sliced bread. Hawk can barely hide his disappointment and disgust.
** Father Mulchahy spends one episode growing corn in a garden, and turns the fully grown ears of corn over to the cook, anticipating the mouth-watering delight of corn on the cob. The Mulchahy's horror and incense, the cook creamed the corn. It was so egregious, the normally kind and cheerful Mulchahy [[GoshDangItToHeck calls the cook a "ninny"]].
** The food also served in the early seasons to show another way Radar was a little weirdo: he ''loves'' the stuff and usually piles his plate high with mess hall food. Even after CharacterDevelopment, this habit stuck until he left the show.

* Justified in the ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' episode "Diss the Cook". Chef Pat serves normal food to most of the students at the Royal Woods Middle School, but disgusting or subpar food to Lincoln and Lynn. They talk to their older sisters, and find out that Leni, Luna, and Luan were also given unpalatable lunches when they went to the school. As it turns out, it was because Pat has a grudge against the kids' mother, Rita.
* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/MyGymPartnersAMonkey''. Adam Lyon, the TokenHuman student at Charles Darwin Middle School, finds the cafeteria food appealing since it literally contains things like bugs (hence why he always brings his own lunch to school), but his animal schoolmates enjoy it. However, Adam eventually finds out that the cafeteria food from his old school wasn't much better.

This trope is often associated with {{SuckySchool}}s and LethalChef lunch ladies. May be accompanied with a StockYuck when played for comedy. If the cafeteria food being disgusting is actually a hoax, then see PutOffTheirFood. This trope can be extended to military mess halls.

This trope is often associated with [[SuckySchool Sucky Schools]]. May be accompanied with a StockYuck when played for comedy. If the cafeteria food being disgusting is actually a hoax, then see PutOffTheirFood. This trope can be extended to military mess halls.

** Winchester, in one of his earliest encounters with the mess hall, asks if there any green vegetables. He's told there's some lettuce, but that the rats had a go at it first. Winchester's reply says it all.

* In one of the weirdest examples of this trope, the students from ''Series/SavedByTheBell'' prefer to eat food at their LocalHangout, The Max, instead of their cafeteria, which Jessie even quipping "It's nice being able to eat a burger you don't have to comb." However, since they are never seen paying for the food, one can logically assume that the food is free (or is at least for the six main characters).

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'': In the pilot episode, the cafeteria food, "Tomato Surprise", is an acid that is so strong that it [[AteTheSpoon melts a spoon]] (and is later used by Gretchen to melt the hinges of a door). T.J. also mentions that they've previously been fed fish sticks made out of cardboard and macaroni and cheese stuck together with paste. This prompts T.J. to break into the kitchen to find the good food, and he finds a fridge full of it. However, when he touches the handles of the fridge, an alarm sounds and he gets caught by Ms. Finster, and he gets punished with lunch detention.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheShiveringTruth'': The pilot episode has the lunch lady [[{{Squick}} use a blind girl's welt to make cafeteria food]]. May we remind you, this is ''the pilot''.

* In September of 2021, it became a trend to record disgusting school lunches. Some of these videos had moldy food and expired milk. Unsurprisingly, this sparked controversy in New Jersey.
* This has ''long'' been TruthInTelevision, as schools historically served food based on its price rather than its taste or nutritional value. So cafeteria food was cheap, institutional stuff that wasn't very expensive, arrived pre-cooked and frozen, and got heated in large batches then sat on a warmer as students shuffled through the lines. Recent decades have seen efforts to improve the nutritional quality and taste of school lunches in the US, but how effective they've been has varied considerably across the country.

-->''Winchester:'' Corporal, you have made me lose my appetite and I...am grateful!

** In befitting the SuckySchool status of Springfield Elementary, the food served there is disgusting. This includes beef hearts, horse testicles, and shredded newspapers. One memorable "Treehouse of Horror" episode also had the cafeteria serve [[ImAHumanitarian the students themselves]] to solve the issue of overcrowding in the detention room. Half of it seems to be down to Lunch Lady Doris's strange nutritional beliefs ("More testicles means more iron.") and half of it down to the school's razor thin budget ("There's very little meat in these gym mats.").
** Played with in "Father Knows Worst", where Homer starts eating only cafeteria food because, after an accident turns his taste buds hyper-sensitive, the extreme blandness of said food is the only thing he can tolerate.

* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': The poor quality of Middleton High's cafeteria food is a recurring joke.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyGymPartnersAMonkey'': Played with. Adam Lyon, the TokenHuman at Charles Darwin Middle School, finds the cafeteria food appealing since it literally contains things like bugs (hence why he always brings his own lunch to school), but his animals schoolmates enjoy the food. However, Adam eventually finds out the cafeteria food from his old school wasn't much better.

->'''Kim: '''Did you analyze the gravy sample?
->'''Wade: '''Yep.
->'''Kim: '''And?
->'''Wade: '''You don't want to know... until after graduation... from college.

So it's just another school day. The protagonist and his friends are talking in the hallways after class, when all of a sudden the bell rings. Uh oh - it's lunch time.

* In ''ComicBook/TheBeano'' and its TV show ''Dennis And Gnasher Unleashed'', everyone hates Olive's school dinners. The Olive from the Dennis cartoon is actually a different character than the one from the Bash Street Kids strip in the Beano comic - the comic nowadays uses both Olives, and both are as bad as each other.

-->'''Nate:''' Are you sure this is even food?
-->'''Teddy:''' That question has been asked many times.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

* In Disney's ''Film/TheGamePlan'', quarterback Joe Kingman (Dwayne Johnson) makes his long-lost daughter Peyton (Madison Pettis) a protein shake for breakfast, which consists of raw eggs and tuna for protein. As she sniffs the shake, she immediately pulls back, plugs her nose with her fingers and quips "Ew, that smells worst than school food!".

* In one of the weirdest examples of this trope, the students from ''Series/SavedByTheBell'' prefer to eat food at their LocalHangout, The Max, instead of their cafeteria, which Jessie even quipping "It's nice being able to eat a burger you don't have to comb". However, since they are never seen paying for the food, one can logically assume that the food is free (or is at least for the six main characters).

[[folder:Poems]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MyGymPartnersAMonkey'': Played with. Adam Lyon, the TokenHuman at Charles Darwin Middle School, finds the cafeteria food appaling since it literally contains things like bugs (hence why he always brings his own lunch to school), but his animals schoolmates enjoy the food. However, Adam eventually finds out the cafeteria food from his old school wasn't much better.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In befitting the SuckySchool status of Springfield Elementary, the food served there is disgusting. This includes beef hearts, horse testicles, and shredded newspapers. One memorable "Treehouse of Horror" episode also had the cafeteria serve [[ImAHumanitarian the students themselves]] to solve the issue of overcrowding in the detention room. Half of it seems to be down to Lunch Lady Doris's strange nutritional beliefs ("More testicles means more iron.") and half of it down to the school's razor thin budget ("There's very little meat in these gym mats.").

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In befitting the SuckySchool status of Springfield Elementary, the food served there is disgusting. This includes beef hearts, horse testicles, and shredded newspapers. One memorable "Treehouse of Horror" episode also had the cafeteria serve [[ImAHumanitarian the students themselves]] to solve the issue of overcrowding in the detention room.

!!Examples

[[folder:Film - Animated]]

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': Justified in "Diss the Cook". Chef Pat serves normal food to most of the students, but disgusting or subpar food to Lincoln and Lynn. They talk to their older sisters, and find out that Leni, Luna, and Luan also got given unpalatable lunches when they went to middle school. As it turns out, it was because [[spoiler:Pat had a grudge against the kids' mother]].

That means that the entire school will be subjected to eating whatever the creepy lunch lady gives out, whether it be MysteryMeat, a [[MessOnAPlate random pile of gooey sludge]], a MasochistsMeal, or something even worse.

That means that the entire school will be subjected to eating whatever the creepy lunch lady gives out, whether it be MysteryMeat, a random pile of gooey sludge, a MasochistsMeal, or something even worse.

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!!Indices: FoodTropes, SchoolTropes, DisgustTropes, ComedyTropes

** The food also served in the early seasons how Radar was a little weirdo: he ''loves'' the stuff and usually piles his plate high with mess hall food. Even after CharacterDevelopment, this habit stuck until he left the show.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/NickelodeonClickamajigs https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bandicam_2020_11_26_17_01_11_836.jpg]]]]